Touched by a Spirit
by Kanna37
Summary: Katara's not just a regular waterbender anymore... Now complete.
1. Chapter 1

**Touched by a Spirit**

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

~A~

Opening her eyes slowly and forcing herself to continue breathing lightly and evenly as though she really were asleep, Katara listened intently to the night sounds around her with almost preternatural stillness. She lay that way for several minutes but finally, when no sounds of movement were apparent from her friends sleeping in the rest of the house she slipped out of her bed and tiptoed out of her room, careful to make absolutely no noise.

She breathed a sigh of relief when she'd finally managed to get out of sight of the house, but she continued to move as quietly as possible along the rocky ground, glad when the stone began to become finer until she was walking across sand towards the shore of Ember Island.

For a few minutes she simply stared across the dark sea to the horizon, marveling in the beauty of a place she'd always hated even hearing a mention of – the Fire Nation. But there was no denying the land's appeal, and she had to admit that even most of the people weren't the evil monsters she'd always imagined them to be. Most of the Fire Nation citizens were just trying to live like everyone else on the planet, and it wasn't their fault that the wealthy, overly powerful minority of their nation had plunged it into a war that was slowly destroying it and the rest of the world.

Finally, with a deep sigh she closed her eyes and centered herself, and began what she'd really come out here to do – waterbend. There was no moon out, and while normally as a waterbender she would have preferred to be practicing under Yue's light, now the soft darkness of the night soothed something inside her.

Tui and La became all she could feel, and as she gave herself over to the slow, graceful movements of what she was doing she lost all track of time or place. She could feel her chi flowing from her and entering the water and kept her eyes closed, not even needing to use them to know what was happening to the ocean that was now dancing to her will.

To the boy who was standing back at the line where sand met stone she was the most entrancing thing he'd ever seen. She was like a water spirit in that moment, otherworldly and so breathtakingly beautiful she made his very soul ache. He was positive he would never see anything so heartbreakingly perfect as her... but even more stunning was the shock of what she was doing.

The water spun and whirled around the young girl in perfect symmetry, following her graceful movements with swift elegance. But the thing that had him gaping was the sheer volume of water she was commanding – she had moved the shoreline back by at least fifty or sixty feet for quite a stretch, the seawater towering above her and the beach by well over a hundred feet while she branched tendrils off of it to move around her slender body.

A wave like what she was currently bending would have been a deadly tsunami if she hadn't been in full control of it – one that would have washed over most of the island they were on. Even he couldn't do what she was doing without going into the avatar state! He'd always known she was a talented waterbender, probably the most powerful currently alive, but... this was beyond what a normal human could have done.

Even more impressive, when she'd realized he was there she hadn't lost control of the water in her startlement, simply allowing it to return to its bed so gently that there was barely even any spray from the motion. Aang blinked, just so stunned he didn't even know what to say as she turned around and opened her eyes to look at him.

There was a speaking silence between them for several eternal-seeming seconds, and then the young waterbender sighed uncomfortably and looked away from him. "How much did you see?" she asked softly.

The avatar did his best to shake off his shock. "Enough. How...? I mean, that's... that was... what _was_ that?" he finally managed to spit out around his disbelief.

"To be honest, I'm not sure," Katara eventually replied, folding her arms across her abdomen almost defensively and turning to look back out at the once-again calm sea.

"Why... why've you been trying to hide this?" he asked next, his brows knitting together in confusion, not even sure what he was really looking for. His mind was just so... blank right now. "And how _long_ have you been hiding this?"

"Well, I mean, look at how you're reacting right now!" she exclaimed defensively, spinning back towards him but not meeting his eyes. "You're looking at me like I'm some kind of freak! And... I only found out a couple weeks ago myself. I was just restless one night and went to the river we were near to do a little bending, and before I even knew what was happening I looked out and saw that I'd completely stopped it from flowing at all for about a mile in either direction, all the water rising into the sky like two huge walls and leaving the riverbed completely dry."

Eyes widening in further shock, Aang stared at her with deepening concern – and some mystification. That was... that was just impossible. If he hadn't seen what he just had he'd have had a hard time believing it. But there was something he had to clear up with her right away. "Katara, I don't think you're a freak. I could never think that! I'm just-" he shook his head as if to clear it, "-stunned. And a little worried, to tell the truth. Have you... have you had any run-ins with any spirits lately or anything?"

Reaching up with one hand she tucked a strand of hair back behind her ear and started to shake her head in the negative, but then something occurred to her and she paused. "Um... actually, yes," she said, her voice surprised. "But how did you guess?"

Really worried now, the airbender darted up to her, peering intently into her eyes as he tried to see if he could see anything dangerous staring back out at him. But there was nothing, nothing but the dubious expression that was completely Katara looking back.

"Uh, Aang, are you okay?" she asked hesitantly after a moment when he kept searching her eyes.

"I'm fine... and so are you," he breathed with relief, blushing when he realized how much of her space he'd just invaded. He stepped back a couple paces. "Sorry. Could you tell me what happened and what spirit it was?"

"I guess," she said, kneeling down in the damp sand and running her fingers through the little wavelets that were gently inching back and forth. Aang joined her on the sand and watched her closely, arms crossed loosely over an upraised knee.

"It was the Painted Lady," she said softly.

"The Painted Lady?" he echoed in astonishment. That was actually the last thing he'd expected – though perhaps he shouldn't have been so surprised, since she _was_ a water spirit. "She appeared to you?"

Katara shot him a look under lowered lashes. "Yeah," she admitted. "The last night we were near that village, you know, after cleaning the river up. I got restless and went down to the water's edge. I put my hands in it, enjoying the fact that it was clear again and I could actually _see_ my hands, and when I looked up she was right in front of me. I was pretty surprised, but before I could do or say anything she smiled at me and thanked me before disappearing."

Aang's eyes widened. "Oh, wow," he said, his arms falling limply at his sides as he stared at the beautiful girl in awe. "Katara... you've been touched by a spirit! That's... that almost never happens! To have earned the gratitude of one of the spirits is, well, it's a really big deal. When a human is touched by the power of a spirit it changes them – makes them a little more than just a human. You've gained your own connection to the spirit world now, and if something ever happened and another spirit tried to attack you, like Koh-" the young man shivered, "-she would help you. This is really huge!"

"So... all that-" she tilted her head towards the water curiously, "-is because she... thanked me? Am I somehow using some of her power, or something?"

With a shake of his head, Aang demurred. "No. It's like... well... I guess it's more like she's opened your chi pathways up to a higher potential. What the monks taught me is that there are limits that the spirits put on what exactly a human is able to do. Chi is energy, and energy is limitless, really. But if we could access all of that energy we'd sort of destroy the world, you know? So we're limited in what we're allowed to use. What she did is to raise your limit a bit."

Katara blinked, and then her brows knotted as she thought about that. "Oh. I didn't do it because I wanted anything from her," she said, a little disturbed that a spirit was basically thanking _her_. She was just a human girl, nothing special – not like the spirits were.

"If you _had_ done it for that kind of reason she wouldn't have bothered appearing to you at all," he reassured her, reaching out and tentatively touching her hand. He drew back quickly with another blush and looked away. He'd been very careful since the play the other night not to get too close, afraid to upset her and drive her further away. "Sorry," he apologized sadly. "I didn't mean-"

He broke off on a start when his hand was grabbed and folded into the waterbender's own, and Katara grimaced. "You don't have to be sorry, Aang," she replied softly, her own cheeks tinted pink as she avoided his surprised gaze shyly. "Thank you for trying to comfort me. I'm... glad you found me out here and were able to figure out what's been going on with me."

The teenaged boy gingerly squeezed her fingers and then asked, "So... why were you hiding this, Katara? You didn't really think we'd treat you like a freak, did you?"

She stared at her lap and shrugged tensely. "I didn't know what to think. I was worried... and confused. I kinda thought something might be wrong with me, and... I guess I was afraid that if _you_ found out then _I'd_ find out I was right," she said with a tentative glance in his general direction, wondering if he'd understand what she was alluding to with her admittance.

"Do... do you feel different?" he asked carefully, still trying to peer at her in hopes of catching her eyes, though he didn't respond to what she'd said in any other way, leaving her uncertain if he'd caught on to what she was trying to convey to him.

"No, not really. I just... feel water more strongly now?" she stated hesitantly, like she wasn't sure that was the right way to word it but couldn't think of any other way to say it.

"More strongly?"

She nodded, glancing at him from the corner of one eye for a second before looking away again, though her fingers were still clasped tightly around his. "Yeah. Like... there's a huge fresh water aquifer underneath the one the inhabitants use. This place actually has _two_ sources of water. It's pretty far down, though."

Aang blinked, and then tried to send his energy out to see if he could sense what she had, and frowned when he realized that he couldn't. Now, using his _earthbending_ he could feel the cavern beneath the main one that the water she was speaking of was most likely in, and it _was_ pretty large, but... for Katara to be able to sense the water down so far should have been completely impossible, especially since he couldn't.

"Wow," he finally muttered, looking at her with bemusement. "I... I can't sense the water. I can sense the cavern with earthbending, but that's just because of the vibrations that Toph taught me to feel. Could you..." he hesitated, then finished, "could you reach the water down there and actually use it?"

Katara frowned as she thought about that. After a moment she let go of his hand and stood up. Taking a wide stance she closed her eyes and began flowing her energy down through the cracks and fissures in the rocky ground of the island. It took a few minutes for her to reach the lower cavern, but finally she jerked her hands up with a low yell of effort, startling the airbender still sitting where she'd left him and watching her closely – for more than one reason, if the truth were to be told.

A cracking sound behind him had Aang spinning around in the sand and then scrambling back in shocked reaction as a huge pillar of water erupted from the ground a ways back from where they were and then stopped, looking like nothing so much as a frozen waterfall – though it wasn't frozen at all. He stared at it in disbelief and then whipped his head around to look at her blankly.

She'd always been an awesome waterbender, but now she was in a class of her own. And it gave the young avatar a good look into how people probably felt watching _him_ bend, doing feats that no one else in the world could do. It was a rather humbling experience – one he was glad he'd had the chance to have, actually, because he never wanted to become complacent about the fact that he was the avatar or arrogant about his abilities because of that fact.

With a grimace at the expression on his face, Katara smoothly and slowly transitioned back to her normal standing position while lowering her raised hands, letting the water dissipate back into the ground in easy increments. Shuffling her feet awkwardly as he still seemed unable to say anything, she eventually reached one hand across her abdomen and grabbed her other arm, hunching defensively and looking away from the young monk as though afraid he was going to run from her.

"Aang?" she finally prompted timidly, unable to wait any longer for him to speak despite her fear of what he was going to say.

The boy, seeing her reaction to his own finally shook his shock off and straightened up. He eyed her, and then gently patted the ground next to him, inviting her to sit down again. When she did so, he inhaled deeply and then slowly let it out.

"That was... that was totally awesome, Katara! I've never seen anything like that before." He bumped shoulders with her at her cautious smile and grinned. "I could sit here all day and watch you do stuff like that." The boy looked a little thoughtful, then. "You know... we should probably keep this between you and I right now," he mused. "This would be an awesome help during the comet, you know. And if no one knows that you can do this... they can't prepare a defense against you, you see?"

"Hm." Katara pondered that for a few and then nodded. "You might be right. What your enemy doesn't know about you _is_ an advantage."

"Exactly."

The two teens grinned at each other and their gazes locked. Slowly, both lost their smiles and their eyes drifted to half mast as the air around them grew heavy, and without volition they started to lean into each other...

"Hey! What are you two doing out here?"

Aang and Katara both jumped, their faces exploding with fire as they whirled around to look at Sokka, who was standing behind them with his arms folded across his chest and a highly suspicious expression on his face as he glared at them sternly.

"Um, nothing-" Katara started.

"Just talking!" Aang squeaked, flushing guiltily, which Sokka didn't miss.

"Yeah, talking! Nothing but talking!" the two stuttered together, practically talking over each other in their hurry to get their denials out.

"Uh, huh, _sure_," the older teen drawled, rolling his eyes. "Back to the house, both of you. And don't let me catch you sneaking off to 'talk' in the middle of the night again, got it? Now let's go."

He turned on his heel and began stomping off, his blushing sister and a sheepish Aang getting to their feet and following. Katara stuck her tongue out at her brother, Aang smothering a snicker at the sight and they glanced at each other furtively before looking away again with deeper flushes painting their skin.

But they both smiled shyly at each other just as they reached the house and then separated to go to their sleeping chambers, Aang's quick finger over his lips noticed by Katara, but thankfully not by Sokka. The young woman nodded and winked in return before disappearing into her room.

Suddenly, Katara remembered something. _Darn it... I forgot to ask him what he meant when he said that I'm a little more than just human now._

Oh, well, there was always tomorrow. And if her stupid brother wanted to get in the way again, she'd bite his head off and then send him on his way like she should have done a few minutes ago when he'd interrupted she and Aang's... discussion...

~A~

A/N: There will be a second part to this... sooner or later. I already know what I want to write, it's just going to be about finding the time to do it, so please bear with me.


	2. Chapter 2

**Touched By A Spirit **

**Part II**

Disclaimer: Even though it's been almost a year since I wrote the first part of this, I can assure everyone that this hasn't changed, unfortunately. I do not own the characters of Avatar, except in my deepest, most unreachable fantasies.

**~A~**

It was almost a day and a half before Katara was able to corner Aang and ask him what he'd meant by his comment that she was 'not just a human anymore'. Thanks to Sokka's rather lethal glare following her and the young Avatar around everywhere they went, a fact which was beginning to irritate her past her breaking point, she was unable to find a single moment to question him in private – she simply wasn't ready for the rest of the group to find out anything about that matter. Not to mention that her and Aang had decided to keep her new-found strength a secret for the time being, anyway.

Just at the point where she was about to freeze her obnoxious sibling to the ceiling and leave him there for several good hours – or most of the day - Suki seemed to figure out what was going on and intervened, dragging her boyfriend off for some 'quality alone time'. It was an excellent excuse to use with Sokka, and one which immediately took his attention _off _of his sister and a certain airbender.

The moment those two disappeared out of sight, Katara grabbed Aang and hauled him off in the opposite direction with the similarly good excuse of some waterbending practice, and within minutes the Avatar found himself back out by the ocean and sitting next to a rather determined young lady just above the tide line.

He blinked, not sure what was going on. "Uh, Katara? Are you okay?" he asked, a curious, dubious expression on his face as he looked at her.

The girl waved that question off impatiently. "Of course I am, why wouldn't I be?"

"Well... you don't usually kidnap me and drag me away from the rest of the group like that," Aang replied after a moment.

"We agreed the other night to keep my new waterbending ability a secret, didn't we? Me bringing it up in front of everyone doesn't exactly accomplish that."

"Oh." He nodded. "I see. That's what you wanted to talk about." He blushed a little and rubbed the back of his neck, looking away from her with disappointment he tried very hard to hide – he'd been hoping for something quite different. _Just give up on that, Aang, _he remonstrated almost angrily with himself. _She's never going to see you the way you see her, and you're just going to keep getting more and more hurt if you don't stop hoping. Just get over it and face reality already. _He sighed and sat up straighter. "So... what about all that did you want to discuss?"

However, Katara wasn't as oblivious as he thought, and glanced at him quickly when he looked away, a slight blush touching her cheeks, as well. His statement the other night wasn't the only thing she'd been thinking heavily on, and they would discuss that, too – but only after her first question had been answered.

"That night... you said that I'm 'not just a human anymore'," she began hesitantly. "Will you tell me what you meant by that?"

He looked slightly surprised. "Is that how I said it? I guess my head was a little muddled. I'm sorry," he said a bit sheepishly. "I didn't mean to worry you."

"It's okay. But if that wasn't how you meant to say it, then how _did_ you mean to say it?"

"It's not that you aren't human," he chuckled, though there was still sadness beneath his attempts to act normal. "It's just that you're... kind of able to do things that most other people can't. Like go into the spirit world without the direct aid of a spirit, bend your element more powerfully, obviously, and you might even remain healthy and strong later in life than usual for most people." He looked thoughtful for a moment, then slowly added, "Your healing abilities are probably stronger, too."

The waterbender blinked. "I hadn't even thought about that, but you're probably right. Hmm. That could be a good thing."

It fell quiet for a few minutes after that as Katara pondered on what Aang had said.

The airbender just listened to the waves and the lonely calls of the gulls as he waited, feeling his own lonely heart answer back – at least inwardly.

Then, "Anything else?" interrupted his melancholy train of thought and drew his attention back to the water tribe girl and their discussion.

"Not really – not that I can think of offhand, anyway," he replied, shaking his head.

"Okay." After a moment she glanced sideways at him, noting that he was avoiding looking at her, keeping his gaze averted and staring out to sea rather rigidly. _No more of that – it's time to settle things once and for all. _Shame and guilt poked hard at her heart, then, and her own eyes lowered as she acknowledged to herself just how badly she'd hurt Aang over the last weeks. She firmed her determination, refusing to falter – it was time to fix her mistakes. Turning towards him abruptly, the teen reached out and grasped one of the Avatar's hands, causing his gaze to swing towards her in shock.

"Katara, w-what...?" he stammered, looking rapidly back and forth between her and their clasped hands and beginning to blush.

"There's something else we need to talk about. Something even more important than what we just talked about."

At that, Aang paled and desperately wished he could run away. He feared he knew just what she was going to say to him, and he didn't want to hear what he believed would be the final death knell of all his hopes and dreams. But the truth was, running wouldn't really change anything, and he knew it. So with a terrible sense of painful fatalism, he braced himself. Gaze once more dropping away, he swallowed. "O-okay."

Seeing this, Katara could feel tears pooling in her eyes, and she looked down as well as her guilt surged. She wished she could go back in time and keep them all from going to see that awful play those days ago. Wished she could go back and smack herself, kick herself – anything to erase what she'd done that night.

"Oh, Aang," she sighed remorsefully, "I'm so sorry. I wouldn't blame you if you never wanted to talk to me again."

At that Aang looked confused and a little lost, his silver gaze swinging back up. "Um... what for? And besides - I could never ignore you – I'll always talk to you."

She shook her head. "For running away at the play," she responded, ignoring the last part of his sentence as pointless to address. She'd meant what she'd said – she wouldn't blame him, but she knew Aang would never see it that way, so she just let it go and concentrated on the other part of his statement. She smiled a bit sadly as his eyes widened – this was the first time either of them had directly referenced the events from that night. "I've had several days to think about everything, and I've been thinking about it pretty hard. I was an idiot. The truth is, though... I wasn't really running away from you. I was running away from me."

The young Avatar frowned, now even more confused. "What do you mean?"

She glanced at him from under her lashes, then looked away again. "I told you the other night that I was afraid that something was really wrong with me, didn't I?" At his nod, she continued. "I was... afraid that what was happening to me was bad, and if you found out what was going on then it would change how you felt about me," she admitted in an embarrassed whisper, to the young Avatar's total amazement. "That's why I said I was confused and ran. I was actually scared, though, not confused, but I couldn't admit _that_ or you might have realized something _was_ wrong."

Now the airbender just looked dazed, as hope battled with fear that he was reading too much into what Katara was saying. He opened his mouth to say... something, but before he could unstick his brain enough to figure out what, she continued speaking.

"I was so afraid that whatever was happening to me would push you away that instead _I _pushed you away myself. Pretty stupid, huh?" she chuckled morosely. "That's why I said I wouldn't blame you if you never wanted to speak to me again. All I can say is, I'm so sorry, Aang – I never meant to hurt you... though that's no excuse, since that's exactly what I was doing." She paused, then said, "What makes it worse is that I really do love you."

Aang gathered his courage at that and reached over, taking Katara's hands into his own and meeting her gaze with absolute sincerity in his. "You don't need to feel bad, you know. I've done dumb things, too. Remember the Cave of Two Lovers? And my totally stupid statement about not wanting to kiss you? I was just being an idiot, not wanting you to know that I wanted to get close to you like that, when I really, really did – I fantasized about kissing you all the time," he admitted shyly, blushing a little. "I guess we all do dumb things sometimes, but Katara, please don't ever worry about this again. No matter what happens, my feelings about you will never change, okay?" he finished earnestly. "I love you. I always will."

Katara looked up and met his gaze, her own cheeks pinkening as she took in the completely serious expression in his eyes and his heartwarming declaration of continuing affection. She nodded slowly after a few seconds, her fingers tightening around his. "Okay. But I'm still sorry for hurting you."

"It's okay – I'm sorry for hurting your feelings in the cave that time by laughing, you know? No one's perfect."

"Not even the Avatar?" Katara teased lightly, hoping to set aside the rather heavy discussion and move on – to something much better.

He laughed and let go her hands, one of his reaching up to rub his neck as he flushed a little deeper. "Hey, I might be the Avatar, but I'm still human. Being able to bend all four elements doesn't change that."

A small return laugh chimed charmingly in Aang's ears as Katara agreed. "I guess not." She paused, and then the lightened air between them changed a little, and the waterbender swallowed, her smile faltering as her breath hitched in her throat with nervousness. "Um..." she began softly, not daring to meet his eyes any longer as she pushed herself to go forward. It was scary, what she was about to ask, but she had to – Aang had already put himself out on the line twice over her, and now it was her turn. "Now that's all out of the way, though... well, I was wondering. Would... would you be my boyfriend?" she croaked out, shocking the boy sitting opposite her to the core, had she but known it.

He blinked, then blinked again, before his eyes fell closed and he shook his head. _Did she just...? No way. I knew it. This has all been just another dream. _The bitter disappointment that surged up from deep inside almost choked him and for a moment, he wanted to cry. But then he heard her voice prompting him with rising worry, and his eyes flew open again to stare into her rapidly dampening blue gaze. That snapped him out of his shock fast – he hated her tears more than just about anything else.

"Don't cry!" he burst out, waving his hands back and forth with horror. "I'm just surprised, that's all! Did you really just ask me... _that_?" he asked desperately, needing to be sure before he made a total fool of himself.

The waterbender simply nodded, unable to get her voice to function, trapped as it was between fear and sheer, undeniable hope.

But it was enough, and suddenly Aang beamed, his face and eyes lighting up with such brilliant joy that it was Katara's turn to blink almost blankly at the overwhelming beauty of it.

"Yes!" he burst out, laughing exhilaratedly as he pounced the girl, wrapping his arms around her with a sense of relief – as though he'd been unable to breathe all this time, and with her confession and subsequent question, he was finally able to draw breath again. He _felt_ as though he'd been suffocating, anyway, and now... well, he wasn't. And it felt better than he'd ever dreamed to have her in his arms and returning his affections as she in turn wrapped her arms around him and laughed with relief and happiness.

After a few minutes of that, he pulled back just enough to look at her and grinned widely, absolutely loving the gorgeous answering smile on Katara's face. "But you know that's not how things are supposed to be done," he teased her a little flirtatiously. "I'm supposed to ask you."

"Oh, tradition," the girl pouted just as teasingly. "Who cares about that? We're trying to make a whole new world, aren't we? So that means we can make new traditions, too." She sobered a little, then. "Besides... after everything, well, it was my turn to make the move. You've already tried twice, and it wouldn't be fair at all to expect you to do it a third time, especially since it was my fault it went that far in the first place."

Aang thought about telling her that he'd tried to tell her his feelings more than just twice – Aunt Wu's village and the panda lily sprang to immediate mind – but he decided there wasn't really any point in doing so, and knowing Katara, she'd just feel even more guilty, and that's not what he wanted at all. So he just smiled at her and leaned forward, pressing a quick kiss to her lips before pulling back and meeting her surprised eyes.

"Hey, I'm not complaining, you know," he chuckled. "As long as we can be together, I don't really care how it happened." His stare turned heavy as he took in the look on her face, and his smile softened, becoming something else in the matter of a heartbeat. "So... I take it that you wouldn't mind if I, you know, _really_ kissed you?"

Katara's gaze became just as loaded with _other things_ as his was, and she shook her head. "No," she said, her voice a bare exhalation across his lips, "I wouldn't mind at all."

Nothing more was said aloud for some time – but that was okay, since everything that needed saying had either already been said... or was currently being said _without_ words.

And sometimes, _just sometimes_, the kind of speaking done without words was the best kind.

This was definitely one of those times.

**~A~**

A/N: And finally, it's done! After it only took almost a year. I hope no one is disappointed with the load of fluff this turned out to be. I just can't help it when it comes to these two. Of course, my huge crush on Aang doesn't help matters – I just want to give him anything he wants, and since he wants Katara, well...

Anyway, here's hoping everyone has a happy coming New Year!

Amber


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